Abstract

This article seeks to discuss how the contest of Rhodesian and African counter-discourses affected the identity of alternative theatre with respect to western dramaturgical frame and acting. The question that this article is trying to answer is how does the dramaturgical frame and acting reflect, mediate, and challenge the relations of domination and subordination between western culture and indigenous African culture? I argue that the western dramaturgical frame and acting are altered through a process of 'keying' and 'fabrication' by alternative Zimbabwean theatre makers between 1980 and 1996. Sometimes the western dramaturgical frame is deconstructed by using aspects of it along side an indigenous theatrical matrix such as in Kavanagh's Mavambo (1985/97) and Mujajati's The Rain of my Blood (1991). I will return to the terms 'keying' and 'fabrication' shortly after this introductory remark.